There are situations where data exists in multiple data stores, each having its own Application Programming Interface (API), which is a set of functions available for the programmer to use to program applications, and where is it desired to have its generic view of the data from the diverse stores. A typical example of the situation arises in the field of telephony, where the underlying data stores contain telephony information, such as telephone numbers, hunt groups, and the like.
Typically each data source, which may include commercial data bases, has its own API, and it is not possible to provide generic access to the data in the stores without the upper layers having specific knowledge of the API of each individual data source. This makes the upper layers complex to implement.
An object of the invention is to alleviate this problem.
According to the present invention there is provided a method of managing data from a variety of sources, each source providing its own API (Application Programming Interface), comprising the steps of providing a data management layer containing metadata describing entities in each source, said data management layer collating said metadata and presenting it in generic form and providing an upper level view controller communicating with said data management layer to manage the data from different said sources.
The invention thus provides an abstract layer of arbitrary data sources by describing a generic data model and API representing an access in the data. The data model is primarily aimed at providing a data description that is friendly to a user interface.
The invention provides a generic metadata description and an associated API, and a generic representation for field interdependencies. Metadata is of course data about data.
The invention is flexible in that it allows the addition of new field types, the ability to describe more complex data structures, and the ability to describe more complex field interdependencies than before.
The invention may be used, for example, to provide access to Mitel product data bases including, for example, symbol, iPBX, new core control, etc. It can be implemented on a general purpose computer suitably programmed for the purpose.
The invention thus provides a generic view of the data from the diverse data stores, as well as providing infrastructure for managing future data stores including commercial data bases. The invention provides generic access to data without the upper layers requiring specific knowledge of the API of each individual data store.